Feature Stories

For a month in early summer 2023, firefighters, caterers, medics and other support personnel flocked to a section of California’s Highway 108 near Pinecrest, California, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

This is the eighth story in a series called Affording the Fight. When Bobby Blaine first set out to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, he was 23. He didn’t know much of anything about wildland fire. “But

For weeks after the Caribou-Targhee National Forest announced they would be repaving the trail at Cherry Springs Nature Area on the Westside Ranger District near Pocatello, Idaho, Charlene Kynaston

It’s that time of year when wildfire activity is increasing across the country. Have you heard of the Bear Fire, Campbell Fire, or the Blakes Fire? Most likely not because the quick response by

This is the seventh story in a series called Affording the Fight. “I have enjoyed this career path I’ve chosen,” said Jay Beus, a Swan Valley Helitack senior firefighter with the U.S. Department of

If they’d only known. Back in the 1850s, miners in the Sierra Nevada gold-rush town of Sonora, California created a connected system of ditches, wooden flumes and pipes to move water. Sierra snowpack

What is green and gold, sports a collar, has four legs but runs on two? It’s not a riddle. Some have called it a “mountain boomer,” but it is actually an eastern collared lizard. Thanks to intentional

This is the sixth story in a series called Affording the Fight. “It’s a calling, I guess – public service,” said fire engineering equipment operator, Soren Fleming. A 15-year fire employee, Fleming

August is a uniquely special month for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service. This is because two very important birthdays are celebrated. The first, on Aug. 9, is Smokey Bear’s birthday

*Listen to the audio documentary below or read the transcript (PDF, 123 KB) When it comes to detecting tree disease, observation is essential. And Martin MacKenzie – a forest pathologist with the USDA